Ben Elton Quotes

Try, if you will, to imagine Dwight Eisenhower or JFK or Lyndon Johnson or, for that matter, Ronald Reagan chin-wagging with Jack Paar or Johnny Carson. Richard Nixon did, famously, go on 'Laugh In' in 1968, but as a candidate; and to his credit, he rued the day and hated every second of it.

When it comes to whether Britain should remain in the European Union, almost all political parties and traditions - Labour, the Greens, Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, and half of the Tory Party - agree that we are better off in Europe.

Voting for New Labour is like helping an old lady across the road while screaming 'Get a move on!' Even the Tories, who you could once rely on to be completely heartless are pretending to care.

Caricatures created by politics never fit comfortably into the Oval Office.

I was looking for something like baseball, where there's a lot of data and the competition was pretty low. That's when I discovered politics.

When I started in this business, everybody said the Democrats were the better communicators because they sounded like social workers, and Republicans were awful because they sounded like morticians. In some cases. they actually dressed like morticians.

I do think there is a great deal of caricature around the House of Commons. It is just that kind of place.

Tony Blair - good thing there are not parliamentary elections in this country.

Many people supported the Conservatives because of David Cameron, while many people supported Labour despite Ed Miliband. Deteriorating opinions of Cameron will therefore have a bigger impact on the Conservatives' vote share than worsening views of Miliband would have on Labour's.

Eisenhower was willing to experiment with television to promote his candidacy, his Democratic opponent Adlai Stevenson was less inclined to do so. Fearful that the election might become a simple decision between “Ivory soap vs. Palmolive,” Stevenson shunned short, televised commercials and opted instead to talk sense to the American people with more substantive speeches.

The British electors will not vote for a man who doesn’t wear a hat.

The politics of crime is not about a party's record or a candidate's proposals, but about perceived character and values.

Campaigns are about creating cartoons.

'Three Billboards,' which is not based on a true story but does have some reality flavoring, must appear worthy of elected office in some way. This was, at first, the illusion presented by the people running the campaigns and, in turn, over the years, has become the custom for lots of us.

The difference between the BNP and Labour is that the BNP was always a fringe party, never a contender for power.

Jeremy Corbyn confuses the public because he looks like a librarian and enjoys baking bread.

I would do whatever I could to make Jeremy Corbyn more electable, but you've got to give me something to work with, mate.

When people go to vote still in Britain, they will look at their local representatives, but I don't think there is a sort of cult of personality politics. Obviously, they want to know who the leader is for each party, but I think there is a lot of identification with their local candidates.

The extent of my political involvement is that I'm a registered voter - Republican.

I have always voted Labour and I always will. I have got to have one stupid, bovine part of me and that's the part that votes Labour.

Some good souls found The Candidate cynical. I wonder what they'll think when they read this portrait of the real-life Jerry Brown... This is the book that could force the little fox into the open.

When American liberals go to the UK they see the Tories as the Washington Generals, and they see the Labor Party as the Harlem Globetrotters, and they love that. Total power. Whether anything works or not is irrelevant. We work.

Jimmy used to drink liquor. Now he's running for president and he drinks Scotch, and I've never trusted a Scotch-drinker.

To me, Romney is 'Our Idiot Brother', and Obama is 'The King's Speech'. You can spend all the money in the world. If you've got a bad product, it doesn't matter.

No-one ever votes Tory, do they?